How to set Super/Windows key to Show All Applications menu in GNOME DE?
I am on Antergos with GNOME 3.24.3.
Pressing the Super key (Windows key) opens this Activities menu/view that I don’t want to use:
Pressing the Super + A keys opens the menu that I want to open with just the Super key:
I have attempted to set this myself by using dconf-editor to set the Activities menu to the Alt_R key (a key I never use) and the Show All Applications menu to the Super key.
(The keybinding for the Activities menu is under /org/gnome/mutter/overlay-key. The keybinding for the Show All Applications menu is under /org/gnome/shell/keybindings/toggle-application-view.)
However, pressing Super or Super + A does nothing now.
How can I make this all work?
I configured those keys directly through Settings -> Devices -> Keyboard on Ubuntu 17.10. Under “System” section you have “Show the overview” which you can disable (by pressing backspace). And for “Show all applications” you can configure then Super.
For Ubuntu 22.04 with GNOME 42, install following extension:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5040/start-overlay-in-application-view/
For Ubuntu 17.1 or 20.04, install following extension:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1198/start-overlay-in-application-view/
Not sure why you couldn’t get it working with those dconf settings. This works for me (in Ubuntu 18.04):
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key ''
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings toggle-application-view "['Super_L']"
For me, running Elementary OS, the below command worked:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu "['Super_L']"
In my case I needed to figure out which key was mapped to the physical super key.
- Launch
Settings -> Region & Language. - Click on the
Input Sourceslist and choose a language (in my case it wasEnglish). - Click on the little “keyboard” button in the right corner of the window and launch “Show keyboard layout”.
- Click
Superbutton and figure out that it’s mapped toSuper_R - Run
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu "['Super_R']"
All good now!
For GNOME 3.34.4 in Manjaro, try this
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.keybindings toggle-application-view "['Super_L']"
My custom shortcut key stopped working just now because of Tab key get stuck in my external keyboard. The key get stuck causes different combination keys and you may wonder why not working as expected.
So double check your keyboard for such case if keys not working.
On Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS I’ve installed https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1198/start-overlay-in-application-view/
and done
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings panel-main-menu "['Super_L']"
In gnome 3.36.4, mapping Super_L directly to an action using gsettings interfered with the keybindings involving Super_L as a modifier key (e.g., Super+Space to change input source) for me, which was annoying.
To get around this, I installed xcape and configured what pressing and releasing Super_L alone would do. In this case, one could set:
xcape -e "Super_L=Super_L|a"